The Office of Strategic Services and Italian Americans by Salvatore J. LaGumina

Author:Salvatore J. LaGumina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

7.1 Tarallo Missions: Sicily, Lipari, and Ventotene

Lipari. On the morning of August 18, 1943, Captain Frank Tarallo led an SI mission to Lipari Island, the largest of the Aeolian archipelago chain of islands, to wrest it from Axis control, capture valuable military documents, and free prisoners. Accompanied by Lt. North and Privates Fiorillo, Treglia, Durante, Clemente, Ballato, Bonmarito, and Tumiolo, the group filed into three PT boats and, accompanied by a destroyer, reached the island’s outer zone. Their intention to launch a surprise landing was foiled by the Axis powers, who began to deploy shore defenses including howitzer shore batteries and machine-gun emplacements on commanding ridges overlooking the harbor. Without hesitation the OSS unit proceeded to reach land where Tarallo and two others jumped off the PT boats and confronted the Axis naval officer in charge of the island, convincing him to surrender. This bold action undoubtedly saved the mission and upon subsequent interrogation, the surrendering officer confessed that had there been hesitation on the part of Tarallo’s party the shore defense batteries would have opened fire. Consequently the bloodless Lipari mission was exceedingly successful not only in capturing the island and taking 45 prisoners thought worthy of interrogating, but also in collecting valuable Italian naval code books and freeing many prisoners. The liberated island was then turned over to the U.S. Army to administer. 17

Ventotene. Corvo then instructed Tarallo to lead a mission to free from German control island redoubts that could significantly advance the Allied cause leading to Tarallo’s most rewarding experience in the Ventotene Island Group. Located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy, Ventotene housed a fascist jail that held many political prisoners including Sandro Pertini, future President of Italy and some of Italy’s outstanding military minds. Tarallo’s task was to overcome the large German force guarding the prison, liberate the prisoners, and salvage important military secrets. With little more than a corporal’s guard, at noon on September 8, 1943, Tarallo and his team, including Carl Bonmarito, Benny Treglia, and Lt. J.G. North, son of the famous circus family as second in command, boarded the destroyer USS Knight that sailed toward Ventotene, notwithstanding a thick haze that seriously hampered visibility. Added to this was the virtual impossibility of distinguishing the shore line because of the island’s volcanic ash composition terrain, which caused the dory on which they riding to hit the rocky shore. Confronted with this exigency Tarallo and another man jumped out to reconnoiter the area in an effort to locate the entrance to the harbor. Simultaneously loud explosions emanated from the activity of nearby German troops who were destroying various items including a supply boat along the wharf in an effort to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. Although the Tarallo detachment quickly captured 25 German soldiers, dozens more fled to the northern part of island where lay a heavily fortified garrison surrounded by booby traps—a setting that proffered a looming dangerous possibility of a bloody battle between the small American contingent and a superior number of Germans.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.